commentators and columnists and for years have been saying, there's nobody who's trying to be bipartisan or nobody who's willing to stand up and make the hard decisions to solve the tough problems. and now mitt romney has made a choice of someone who clearly falls in that class. someone who worked with ron wyden to put this entitlement reform forward, someone who has been willing over the years to do the hard number crunching and put out specifics on what to do. and now you get what i consider a very hypocritical and self-indicting response particularly from the liberals who are saying this is a gamble or condemn this as a silly move instead of recognizing that this is an attempt to make the debate in the campaign worthwhile and to give the public a solid choice. there's even one very credible commentator who i think embarrassed herself by saying this created a death wish ticket. >> well, you're taking me out of context, so i know you will go

back, sir, and look at that because it's not what i said. >> oh, come on. >> listen, you know, the fact of the matter is, this is either going to put it the way i put it, this is either, as seen by conservatives, going to be what begins the march to the white house or it might be what ends the march to the white house, and we can all talk about it on the 7th. and the truth of the matter is that one way or the other, we're going to look back and know whether it was a good or bad decision. so having said that, i think the question now is, what do you do to kind of push back as you know the democrats are already doing to kind of reframe an election and frankly how campaigns run? >> you hope that you can at least clarify for the public where we are today. that's the first step. and we are today with medicare gutted by $716 billion by

obamacare. the president stole $716 billion from medicare. that's in the law. that's now. and secondly, medicare, by the actuaries at medicare, will go bankrupt, go broke, in essence out of business by 2024. now, there's a lot of folks out there pooh-poohing that that's not a serious issue. that is a serious issue. and so the question is, you now have a choice. with romney/ryan that are willing to talk about those hard numbers and the hard choices you need, or obama/biden who for four years have run away from entitlement reform as fast as you can, have pretended it isn't there. even for four years refused to put a budget -- to fight to get a budget through the house and the senate. how can you have a president go through his entire administration without having the guts to stand up for a budget? the difference between the willingness of having people talk about issues like

obama/biden or having two guys that have a reputation and a willingness to solve problems like romney/ryan. that's the choice the public has. >> as you know, the other side will push back and say, within those -- the budgets that have gone up there but that are obviously have not been pushed for and sometimes have been voted against have been ways to trim spending and medicare, they would say without changing benefits. but let me move you on and ask this question -- >> but candy -- >> let me -- >> those were budgets that got 414-0 votes in the house and 98-0 votes in the senate. he couldn't get a single democrat to support what he was sending up. >> let me ask you, you don't seem to think or agree with the commentary that there is risk to this choice. in fact, i would say that republicans were some of those pushing the idea that there was a risk to that saying, mitt romney is a big risk taker here.

look what he did. he put someone here that's controversial. but you see no risk in this pick. >> i have more faith in the american public than those that see this as a big gamble. i think the american public, when you give them the data, when they see the fact that this country is going down the drain with $16 trillion of debt, when they see medicare and social security on the ropes and about to die if nobody does anything about it, when the young people of america realize that it's their generation that's going to get screwed by the lack of constructive policies coming out of obama, i think they're going to see this as a choice that wasn't a gamble but a choice that was a bright line on the difference of how we have to deal with things in america. >> governor, just quickly, if you look at the groups where mitt romney is underperforming, they are minorities and women. what about paul ryan changes that? >> look. i think that women always get

looked at as being favorable to the democratic party, and there's always great numbers of the democrats getting better polling out of women early. but i think as you get closer to the election, women start paying attention to the details of what's there and start looking at the fact that their kids and their grandkids will be in serious trouble if these problems aren't solved. and i think you'll see that gap closing tremendously. >> governor john sununu in a place very familiar to us. i kind of miss new hampshire looking at you. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. the line says house budget committee chairman looms large on paul ryan's resume, so next we'll ask the committee's top democrat what it's like to work with him. ♪ ♪ every mom needs a little helper. that's why i got a subaru. announcer: love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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someone who knows firsthand that all these tax increases coming in our small businesses, all the mandates from obamacare and dodd/frank, someone knowing that the red tape that is choking and strangling and suffocating our successful small businesses is what is keeping us from creating jobs, from creating prosperity. this is a man who understands these things. >> joining me now is paul ryan's colleague on the house budget committee, democratic congressman chris van hollen of maryland. very familiar man, somebody that you have worked with.

so far i think your colleagues in the obama re-elect committee damning him with praise saying oh, he's genial, but he's wrong. tell me what he's like to work with because so much of what america sees out there today is there's two sides, and they never get together. have you found that this is a man you could work with? >> well, look. personally, paul ryan and i get along very well. we're collegial colleagues. we have very sharp differences, and we express them very clearly. but always in a civil manner. we got together early on when he became chair and i became ranking member and said, look. we have these very deep differences, and that, of course, is what this campaign will be about, but let's try and express them in a way that actually tries to elevate the debate because people need to understand exactly what these choices are about. and i do think that in picking paul ryan, mitt romney has crystallized that choice. and i think at the end of the day when people hear it, that debate is going to help the president in his re-election.

>> well, in fact, isn't this what you all have said all along this was about? the president's folks early on said it's about a choice. it's not about what's going on right now in the economy specifically. it's about who are you going to choose to move forward with it? and so if they have that choice, then this, you know, one hopes, has the essentials for a high-minded campaign which you would agree it hasn't been so far. >> well, this does have now the potential and the opportunity to make this a very sharp choice. and in picking paul ryan, what mitt romney has done is pick somebody who has an economic plan and a budget plan that is great for people just like mitt romney. it's great if you're very wealthy in this country because it provides you additional tax breaks, but it does so at the expense of everyone and everything else. seniors on medicare who get hit harder, expensive investment in our education system. so that's the choice they're making. and i think what the american

people are going to see clearly are the tradeoffs involved in the decisions we make. giving tax breaks to the folks at the top is not a free lunch. it hits everybody else in the country. >> congressman, do you think there need to be big changes made in medicare? not saying what those changes are. do there need to be big changes made in medicare? >> we need to build on the changes made in medicare and the affordable care act which has been distorted even this morning by john sununu. there are additional measures that need to be taken. the president's approach and the approach that we in the democratic party have recommended is to move medicare away from a fee-for-service system which actually increases costs. it does not have enough incentives to contain costs. the republican approach is to shift the risk for rising costs onto seniors, which is why seniors will end up having to pay a whole lot more for what they get now in medicare. and we just don't think that's fair. we don't think it's fair or right to be providing tax breaks for millionaires while you're

asking medicare recipients who have the median income of under $23,000 to have to pay a lot more or get a lot less. >> from what i can tell, the president in his most recent budget called for about a 7% decrease in the increase in spending on medicare. is it sufficient simply to slow that increase? because when you look at bowles-simpson that looked at the deficit and the problem with the debt, if you look at a number of economists, they say we cannot sustain these aging baby boomers and continue to pay as we are now. don't you have to cut that growth, and isn't that the conversation that the republican ticket is having? >> well, actually, you can make progress and significant progress in terms of medicare by reducing the rate of growth because the whole issue with medicare, as with the entire health care system, is that health care costs rise very rapidly. and the difference in the approaches is that the president's approach is one that

says, let's shift the incentive structure in medicare away from one that pushes volume of care toward one that does value of care, whereas the republican approach doesn't address the rise in health care costs. it just shifts those onto seniors in medicare. and the results is on the republican plan, seniors get a much worse deal than members of congress do. i think that's important for people to understand what the republican plan proposes is a health care plan for seniors on medicare that does not keep up with costs to the extent that the plan member in congress have. >> the government doesn't pay as much as it does to you all when the price of the premium goes up is what you're saying. >> well, under the members of congress health plan, the health benefit plan, as health care costs increase, the percentage of support from the plan remains the same. the percentage of support, whereas under the romney/ryan plan, they disconnect those two. so health care costs will continue to rise, but the voucher seniors get will actually decline relative to those rising costs.

and so seniors are stuck holding the bag. >> so after all this -- you know, more than 24 hours now of here he is and here's what he brings to the ticket and here's what he doesn't bring to the ticket and you all, you know, going after him and the republicans all boosting him up, what's changed in terms of the dynamics of the presidential race? >> first of all, the debate's been sharpened because before romney selected ryan, clearly mitt romney was pursuing a strategy where he just thought he was going to run against the president and sort of the status quo in the country, and the president's made the point from the beginning that he inherited a very bad economy. he's helped turn the corner, but we have a long way to go. and this election is about what's next? what's the future? what are the choices? and so now the republicans have put in place their plan for the future. and it's a great future if you're someone like mitt romney because the ryan plan provides not only the existing tax breaks but doubles down on those tax breaks, and it's all based on this trickle-down theory of

economics. >> you don't think the ryan selection will give mitt romney some traction in the polling? >> oh, i think it will help him among the republican base. clearly there's a lot of energy and excitement among the tea party base. but this is essentially telling centrists and independent voters to go take a hike because if you look at the republican budget, the ryan budget, this is an uncompromising document. i mean, they rejected every amendment that house democrats proposed this year. and it was a take-it-or-leave-it approach. and last summer, they said if you don't take our extreme budget, we're actually going to threaten the full faith and credit of the united states government. that was the house republican approach, and that's how they've used their budget. >> finally, i just want to show you something that was in a cnn/orc poll. this is americans and what their opinion is of economic conditions. only 19% said the economy is starting to recover. 41% said seems to stabilize fully. almost 40% say it's getting worse. those are not good numbers for

the president. >> well, the reality is that the numbers have been improving, but they have been improving slowly. and the president -- >> we've seen that confidence drop. >> that may be the case, but the reality is that the president has proposed a plan, jobs initiative, it's actually been sitting in the house of representatives since september. if voted 37 times to repeal obamacare, we haven't voted once on the president's jobs plan which would increase our investment and our infrastructure, our roads and bridges. and by the way, the republican plan would dramatically slash that investment even while we have 14% unemployment in the construction industry. so this just gets, again, to the choices. they're very clearly spelled out in that romney/ryan budget. and romney at one point called that budget marvelous. now he's all in. now he's 100% in so let's have the debate. >> sounds like we are going to have it this fall. thank you so much, congressman

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we spent too much money.

we spent money we didn't have. i think it's not just bad economics to do that. i think it's immoral for us to pass on burdens to the next generation. and in this critical time, one of the few that stood up and fought for principle and said i have ideas to get america back on track is this person i've chosen to be my running mate. >> joining me now is david axelrod, senior adviser to the obama campaign. david, thanks for joining us. >> sure, candy. good to be with you. >> i know you were with the president yesterday. and on the big day for the republican ticket. there have also been some sort of famous public scenes, exchanges between the president and congressman ryan over health care. the president went to a republican retreat once and was challenged by congressman ryan. what does the president think of him? >> oh, i think he thinks he's a perfectly genial and bright guy.

he just thinks his theory is wrong. i mean, congressman ryan is a right-wing ideologue, and that's reflected in the positions that he's taken, you know, the budget that he constructed for the house republicans that would include trillions of dollars of new tax cuts skewed to the wealthy so that we're giving a millionaire $250,000 tax cuts while we're cutting college-age -- college aid for kids and research and development and a whole range of things that we need to grow. he disagrees with congressman ryan's idea that we should turn medicare into a voucher program, shifting thousands of dollars ultimately onto the backs of seniors. he disagrees with congressman ryan's view on a woman's right to choose. he would ban a right on woman's right to choose even in cases of rape and incest. he's quite extreme. a good person, genial person, but his views are quite harsh. >> okay. then let me ask you, so you

describe him as extreme. so i want to take you back to a december 15th "wall street journal" op-ed, the congressman wrote along with senator ron wyden who is a member of your party and is seen certainly as a moderate to liberal democrats. and the two of them together came up with a plan to help save medicare. and they wrote, "our plan would strengthen traditional medicare by permanently maintaining it as a guaranteed and viable option for all our nation's retirees." so this extreme plan has been signed on to and one of the authors of it is a member of your own party. so why is that extreme? >> well, i'd just disagree with senator wiyden and congressman ryan, and so have most of the experts who say the way that this constructed, that medicare would be in a death spiral under this plan and ultimately it would raise costs on seniors by thousands of dollars. you know, i mean, the truth is,

candy, that this is the secondite second i iteration. he did this in the last budget as well, and newt gingrich called it right-wing social engineering. and he was right about that. the way -- what we need to do is strengthen medicare. the president has already lengthened the life of medicare by eight years. he's going after waste fraud and abuse. he's promoting a better delivery of care. and these are the ways to save medica medicare, not by a trojan horse. that ultimately will spell its demise. >> david, you know, waste fraud and abuse, as you know, is often used sometimes when people need to cut things out of a budget and to look like there's savings. if you could name me the one thing president obama has done over the course of the first 3 1/2 years that you think will

save medicare in the years ahead, knowing that the baby boom is aging, what has he done? >> candy, first of all, you and i should not -- we should leave it to the experts to say the congressional budget office said what president obama has done already has added eight years to the life of medicare. >> is that sufficient, do you think? >> would end -- no, we have to do more. in his budget, he does more in terms of delivery of services and how that's done. he does ask a little more of upper-income seniors. and in terms of waste, fraud and abuse, you're right, people always say it, but this administration has done it. he's increased health care prosecutions -- health care fraud prosecutions by 75%, recovered tens of billions of dollars. >> let me ask you, turn you just a little bit and ask you whether you think this choice by mitt romney has shaken up the race

and in what way. >> i think it's helped further define the race. i don't think it's shaken up the race because governor romney has embraced many of the positions that congressman ryan espouses as a sound -- i mean, he's for the trillions of dollars of tax cuts for millionaires. >> david axelrod, senior adviser to the obama campaign, thanks for joining us this morning, david. >> all right. great to be with you, candy. thank you. in a moment, the view from the other side. we'll talk to romney campaign senior adviser and former republican chair ed gillespie after the break. or business - or business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. want my recipe for healthier hair color? natural instincts! formulated with aloe, vitamin and antioxidants natural instincts has a system

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a person must have a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision for their country and an ability to put that vision into place. the man who best embodies those things, the man who has the experience to be that kind of leader we need at this moment is the man standing next to me. his name is mitt romney, and he is going to be the next president of the united states. >> i'm joined now by ed gi gillesp gillespie, senior adviser for the romney campaign. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> big day for the campaign yesterday. we've heard so many people interpret what it meant for the campaign and what it said about mitt romney.

so why don't you tell us from the inside out, what was the message you all were trying to send yesterday with this pick? >> the message was that this is a big election. and it's about big issues, and it needs to be serious. governor romney has been putting forward the romney plan for a stronger middle class for a long time. our first ads were about what he would do as president. and picking paul ryan says we're going to choose someone here who has a record of taking on the tough issues, of facing the challenges that we confront as a country and providing solutions and answers to those things. and i think that it shows that we're not going to, you know, be distracted by some of these little things that the obama campaign seems to constantly want to be putting out there. we want to talk about the big issues facing the country, and i think it was a bold move by governor romney. >> that's part of the beauty of this, right? is that you can change the conversation which had been about where are your tax returns, it's been about bain and the decisions that bain did

or didn't do to folks. and but there's also been this sense that the romney campaign thought it could go along the whole time going, the economy's bad, the economy's bad, the economy's bad, elect someone else. and that this was the decision that said i understand we've got to move this forward. >> well, candy, any presidential election where you have an incumbent president seeking re-election is about referendum, what is the performance? obviously we do have concerns and the country has concerns about the record run of unemployment above 8%, about falling incomes, about our debt being downgraded and the massive debt. but we also have, you know, put forward a solution, and governor romney has put forward a solution. and the romney/ryan ticket now puts forward, you know, big ideas that i think the american people deserve to take into account for an election. >> we've got to look at an internal romney memo from yesterday with here with the possible questions you're going to get about this pick. here's how to answer them. one of them was about do you sign on to the so-called ryan budget? >> yeah.

>> just his ideas. in particular about medicare and the ryan suggestions for that. and the internal memo said, "governor romney applauds paul ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president, he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit, and putting the budget on a path to balance." widely seen as, well, you know, we don't actually embrace the ryan plan. you can't -- you can't have a guy on your ticket without embracing the fullness of his plan. >> well, look. as governor romney has made clear, if the romney -- i'm sorry, if the ryan budget had come to his desk as president, he would have signed it, of course. and one of the reasons that he chose paul ryan was for congressman ryan's willingness to put forward innovative solutions in a budget. at the same time, it is the romney/ryan ticket. and as president, president romney will be putting forward his own budget. but in terms of, for example, the medicare proposal that senator wyden and congressman ryan have put forward, the

wyden/ryan plan, that is something that governor romney agrees is an approach we need to take. we need to save medicare for future generations. that includes giving an option for people to stay in the current system of medicare if they choose, or having other options as well, reforms that could save it for future generations. >> and you have heard the obama campaign argue that this just puts the costs on seniors. it will leave them out there as those premium prices continue to rise. you look at a state like florida, but there are plenty of other states where the senior vote is completely important. you understand, ed, more than anyone how this kind of thing is so hard to sell to seniors. you can say all you want. this doesn't affect those currently on medicare. it's not how it comes across. we've already seen commercials on the ryan plan with him pushing an old woman in a chair off a cliff. >> yeah. >> this is also a third rail. how do you fight that on the campaign trail? >> candy, you know, the campaign

of hope and change of 2011 has diminished to the campaign of fear and smear in 2012. we understand that. we understand that they're going to try to -- look, the other side has accused governor romney of being a felon. they have accused him of being responsible for the tragic death of a woman. they're going to do all kinds of things to try to scare voters. we believe that voters will look at the facts. >> ed gillespie, republican strategist for the romney campaign, thanks for being here, ed. >> thanks for having me. we'll check the day's other news in a moment including a major power grab in the middle east. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about that 401(k) you picked up back in the '80s. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like a lot of things, the market has changed, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and your plans probably have too. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we'll give you personalized recommendations tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 on how to reinvest that old 401(k). tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and bring your old 401(k) into the 21st century. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rollover your 401(k) or ira and receive up to $600.

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here's a check of today's top stories. opposition forces in syria reportedly 53 deaths in fighting today including 10 young men rounded up and executed in the city of homs. in turkey, secretary of state clinton says the u.s. will work with its allies to develop contingency plans in the event the syrian regime collapses. a major shake-up in egypt. state-run nile tv says morsi has reversed a degree that gives legislative authority to the military. he also ordered his country's defense minister who recently met with leon panetta and another top general to retire. iran's news agency reports rescue operations have ended just one day after a pair of

strong earthquakes killed at least 250 people and injured nearly 2,000. an iranian official says 110 villages in the northwest part of the country were damaged. a man in civilian clothing opened fire on a base shared by afghan and nato forces saturday, killing three nato troops. right now reuters is quoting an iranian news agency report that a u.s. soldier was killed by a blast in southern afghanistan. cnn has not been able to confirm the report. for the first time, a u.s. army general is openly announcing she's gay. general tammy smith told people on friday just as she was receiving her promotion. it's been less than a year since the military ended its don't ask, don't tell policy. and in a minute, we'll talk strategy as the presidential campaigns move toward the year's next milestones, the party conventions.

we feel, as your fellow citizens, that we owe you a choice. a choice of two futures. we can either stay on the current path that we are on, a nation in debt, a nation in doubt, a nation in despair, a nation with high unemployment, where we're giving our children a diminished future, or we can change this thing and get this country back on the right track. >> we are back with cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellen, also david trucker, associate politics editor for roll call. i feel like -- you know that old senate saying about, you know, all that needs to be said has been said, it's just not everyone has said it. >> yes. >> exactly. so let me ask you this first just sort of big question. we've spent all this time, everybody saying here's what it means, here's what it doesn't mean. has anything fundamentally

changed the dynamics of the campaign right now? >> i don't know that the dynamics are changed, but i think that with ryan's -- with mitt romney's choice of paul ryan, we know where he wants to go. we know what he wants to do if he wins. and i think it gives us a different picture of mitt romney than everybody was assuming, which is that he was risk averse, that he was a play-it-safe guy. and even though i don't think that paul ryan is necessarily as risky as some people believe, it means that he's willing to do things that didn't fit with the caricature of who he was. and i think that gives us a different window into who mitt romney is. >> sure. i mean, they want it to be seen as a bold choice, and he's not this big, cautious candidate. on the other hand, they are also arguing it's not all that risky. you know, let's face it. this is a white guy politician from the midwest. it used to be the risk was

elsewhere. >> right. also, at the same time that he's embraced paul ryan, that same day he sent out talking points to the campaign surrogate saying, but we're not embracing the budget. just be clear that mitt romney will make his own budget when he's in office. so they're trying to have a little of it both ways. what it gives them is first of all a lot of mitt romney looks happy. i mean, he looks pumped. >> he's completely energized. there's nothing like getting a buddy out there. it's true. >> that gives them a little bit of energy at least for a while going into the convention. >> well, i thought this was very important because at the end of the day, this is still going to come down to mitt romney versus barack obama and the economy and what they're going to fight over. >> well -- >> so if paul ryan can give mitt romney this kind of boost and give him this kind of agenda direction, he still might lose, but he's not going to win it the other way. the way of saying, well, it's all barack obama's fault. just vote for me. he's got to give those swing voters and persuadables something to vote for. and if ryan helps him do that, it gives him the best opportunity to win even if he doesn't.

>> i -- the challenge here is that now instead of having a debate about the economy and the jobs, there is the opening for the obama campaign to make this a debate about what entitlement reform is going to look like. >> america's favorite entitlements, by the way. >> social security. >> social security, medicare. >> get your hands off my medicare, that kind of thing. so instead of it being purely a referendum on the president's tenure and how he's done with jobs, this has opened up a can of worms into are they going to limit grandma's ability to get, you know, her health care. >> and let me ask you, because we've always talked about the three opportunities for a challenger to kind of break through. the vice presidential selection followed by the conventions, followed by the debates. and it's not that one day changes everything -- usually one day doesn't change anything in a campaign. there are exceptions, but usually. so now he moves forward. he clearly is pumped. it clearly has brought together a lot of folks who were less than enthused on the right with mitt romney. what does the convention look

like now? >> well, the convention will be very enthusiastic. i mean, i think you have -- tend to have at your convention your most enthusiastic base voters. and they're a lot more excited than they would be with the ryan pick than, for example, i don't want to mean to these guys who didn't get picked right now, but the other named guys. but you do have a slate of two white folks. so you need to mix it up with some other folks who can bring a little color and gender diversity to it. >> and doesn't he have to -- i'm -- we have this poll that i want to show you. it's a cnn/orc poll. and the question was, who will the economy get better under? if obama wins, 47% of folks say the economy will get better. if romney wins, 45%. so essentially it's a wash. right now. so to me, the question is, then why isn't romney doing better? and i wonder if it isn't in those likability numbers where

people just can't warm up to the guy, and isn't that the job the convention's going to have to do? >> well, that's going to be part of it. mitt romney will have to introduce himself to the nation in a way that helps him. he's going to have to talk about his family life, his faith, his business arrear career that's dt from obama. it's interesting whether or not people think the economy's going to get better, i think that's why you heard romney and ryan saying this is not the new normal. we're here to tell you it's not and doesn't have to be. and there's a reason they said that. because if the country believes that, well, this is just the way it is no matter who's in office, it makes it harder for them to decide to make a change. >> yeah. no, i think that's a dangerous number. because that was romney's sort of edge. oh, yeah, he has better ideas. and now he's lost it. >> they have to believe it can get better under romney. if they think it's the same no matter who's in office, then it's a tougher sell. >> the challenge with the ryan pick is that the obama team has up till now built this image of mitt romney as this rich guy

who, you know, the personality image, just wants to improve taxes for people like himself. so you've got that story line. now they have this policy piece, this narrative about entitlement reform that they can just build on that and say see, he's picked this guy who wants to do exactly what this mitt romney fellow we told you about is interested in doing. and paul ryan's plan is the policy to implement what mitt romney the character we've built wants to do. and naetsz what i think you're going to see the obama team doing. >> the rhetoric is very similar. i talked to a democrat yesterday, you know, in and around the campaign who said but this is just what we said before on steroids now. because we've got, you know, paul ryan just underscores everything we've said about mitt romney. can they make that case? >> this is where they were going. and i think it depends on how voters feel about the economy and unemployment and where we are in september and october about that. look, every time you have a challenger making a case, you have the incumbent, if things

aren't going well for him, and we've seen this before, say oh, my god, the other guy is so extreme. look at all these horrible things they're going to do. but if the country is inclined to make a change, usually what they'll say is, look, none of you guys are perfect. it can't be as bad as you say. we're willing to give the other guy a shot. if this was not an economy that was in trouble, the president would have much more of an ability to have mileage with these arguments. he's got the chance to do it, but when you're running with 8.3% unemployment potentially, an anemic economic growth, it means that there are two competing considerations voters are going to make. they might side with the president and say yeah, don't touch medicare. but they might say, you know what? these people want to fix things. i don't know if we agree, but we're willing to give them a shot. the opportunity's there for the republicans because of where the economy is and how people have felt about the president's economic stewardship. >> jessica, you get our last 15 seconds. and let me just say, who next week goes up in the polls as a result of this?

because we know democrats were, quote, salivating. >> oh, i think romney gets a bump out of this. i mean, paul ryan is an enormously likeable guy. he's been very charismatic on the stump. >> here he is, here's what we say, and so thief got a lot of play. >> yeah, we'll see how long it lasts is the way these things go. >> exactly. david, jessica, thank you very much. it's probably a safe bet that paul ryan's done one thing no other would-be vice president would. stay there and we'll show you. isn't it time the automobile advanced? introducing cue in the all-new cadillac xts. the simplicity of a tablet has come to your car. ♪ the all-new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward.

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it is day two and soon-to-be rally two on this day for mitt romney and his new running mate, paul ryan. this is high point, north carolina. north carolina, hugely important. cnn is following this, and we'll bring you that rally when the two of them show up. in the meantime, the conclusion now of our "getting to know online" segment with paul ryan. we talked to him about a year ago and had the chance to ask some not-so-hard-hitting questions like what's your favorite food. it's not what you eat. it's what you drive. let me ask you about a picture and again for those of our

viewers who are not familiar with it, we want to put up this picture. and it's you driving the oscar mayer wiener mobile. one of your jobs. we'd like to know how that job was, actually. >> my aunt was a secretary. oscar mayer is based in madison. he was a secretary for oscar mayer for about 5 years. that's how i got acquired with oscar mayer, the company. i worked as a salesperson for oscar mayer during the summer between college sessions. it was a great job. i sold oscar mayer products to northern minnesota. meat managers in northern minnesota are up early in the morning and then kick off in the afternoon to go fishing. you have to be there from 4:00 in the morning till 3:00 in the afternoon. i'd go fishing with them for walleye which was a great summer. >> your original plan was that you were going to become a doctor. so i want to know what happened there. we also read that your mom gave you a helping hand in getting into politics because she was afraid you'd become a ski bum.

>> yeah, that is -- there is some truth to that. my grandfather was a doctor, uncle, i have doctors in my family. i always looked up to them. and then i got into condehemist and physics and biology. i didn't want to talk years of that. and i fell in love with economics. i wanted to go into the field of economics. i am a big skier. i was really into freestyle skiing, mogul skiing. and my mom was worried that after college i went to go skiing, two years would turn into five, ten, whatever years. so i was offered a job as an economic policy researcher. my home state senator. she really gave me a nudge to take that job because she was worried i'd become a ski bum. that's when i got involved in economics and politics. jack kemp i ended up working for and he was my mentor along with bill bennett. that's what got me into public policy and is kind of where i am today. >> economic policy versus skiing. did you ever regret that decision? >> sometimes.

>> we want to ask him that one again in a couple of weeks. you can watch more of our "getting to know" interviews at cnn.com/sotu. thanks so much for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. if you missed any part of today's show, you can buy it on itunes. "the situation room with wolf blitzer" starts right now. the decision is made. >> it's an honor to announce my running mate and the next vice president of the united states, paul ryan! >> now a look at paul ryan. the man. >> jamesville, wisconsin, is where i was born and raised, and i never really left it. >> the lawmaker. >> i have focused on solving the problems that confront our country. >> and his impact on the race for the white house. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

in this special hour, we're taking a close look at the man mitt romney has asked to join him on the republican presidential ticket, paul ryan. fittingly, romney made the announcement in front of the battleship "the uss wisconsin." ryan, chairman of the house budget committee, made a name for himself here in washington by battling deficits and fighting for cuts in government spending. listen to how mitt romney broke the news. >> it's an honor to announce my running mate and the next vice president of the united states, paul ryan! his leadership -- his leadership